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tv   Happening Now  FOX News  May 16, 2013 8:00am-10:01am PDT

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for jenna lee. >> i'm gregg jarrett in for jon scott we're awaiting a press conference. after days of pressure the white house is releasing 100 pages of e-mails and notes on the attack, in an attempt to quell the outrage over the revision of talking points in the days after the attack. these new e-mails. painting somewhat of a different picture than what was portrayed before. here's what press secretary jay carney said last week. >> what remains the case is that the intelligence community, cia, drafted these talking points and redrafted these talking points. the fact that there are inputs is always the case in a process like this. but the only edits made by anyone here at the white house were stylistic and nonsubstantive. they corrected the
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description of the building where the facility in benghazi from consulate to diplomatic facility and the like. gregg: well, the documents may belie that claim. we have fox team coverage on several controversies consuming washington right now. mike emanuel is live on capitol hill with big developments in the irs scandal. first to these newly-released e-mails on benghazi. let's go to our chief washington correspondent james rosen live at the state department. james? >> reporter: gregg, good afternoon. the 94 pages of e-mails that were released by the white house late last night show that the white house was more deeply involved and earlier on in the crafting of the talking points than that statement you just played from jay carney indicated. at 6:48 p.m. on that fateful friday, september national security council spokesman tommy vietor, e-mailed the inneragency colleagues john brennan, white house counterterrorism aide, now
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cia director, will have edits. four minutes later he e-mailed brennan's edits deleting that the attackers hailed across, quote, from many sectors of libyan society. >> look, i'm a republican in the house. put it in context. i know people will do that but objectively the only thing that the white house spokesperson has is credibility. there is nobody at this point that believes the white house spokesperson, jay carney, that these were merely stylistic changes. the public was misled for weeks. >> reporter: in arguing that the talking points should be stripped of references to extremists and the group ansar al-sharia the state department's victoria nuland consistently claimed the deletions were necessary to protect the fbi investigation. early on the cia seemed to believe the fbi requested as much. general counsel steven preston e-mailed at 4:20 that friday, folks i know there is hurry to get had out, we need to hold it
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enough whether complying with it conflicts with express instruction shuns. nsa, department of justice, fbi, that we are not to generate assessments who did this et cetera, even internnally for public release. victoria nuland said why do we want lawmakers on the hill fink iring ansar al ha shia? 13 minutes later a official wrote back to nuland, on that very issue, victoria, we're waiting to hear back from the bureau. about an hour after that, a cia told you in land, we further discussed talking points with your comments and concerns in mind. fbi did not have major concerns with the points and offered only a couple minor suggestions. within an hour after that, a cia official confided to his colleagues at langley, quote, fyi, fbi says al qaeda, not al qaeda in the u.s. lame muck ma greg was involved. so they're pursuing that
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theory. we're not ahead of law enforcement. are we clear to send talking points to congress? the answer came back, no. as we know the talking points went through some 11 rewrites, gregg. gregg: james rosen live at the statement department. james, thank you very much. uma there is breaking nug on the investigation into the irs targeting of conservative groups. one head just rolled. lawmakers are saying a lot more has to be done. last night the acting commissioner of the internal revenue service, steven miller, was fortsed to resign. president obama is vowing to restore the american people's trust in the agency. >> it is inexcusable and americans are right to be angry about it and i am angry about it. i will not tolerate this kind of behavior in any agency but especially in the irs, given the power that it has and the reach that it has in all of our lives. uma joining us now with much more, chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel who is live on capitol hill. mike? >> reporter: will hi, uma.
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with news coming just moments ago that president obama intends to appoint a new acting irs commissioner, the united states congress still has plenty of questions for the guy on his way out. the resignation of steven mill every was announced last night by president obama by still tomorrow the house ways and means committee has plenty of questions for him as law makers here on capitol hill try to get to the bottom of irs's treatment of conservative and some religious groups. key tea party leaders a short time ago say they want answers and more. >> someone needs to be held responsible. someone needs to be imprisoned. someone needs to be prosecuted the resignation is a step in the right direction but we need to find out who wrote this policy, who approved this policy and they need to be held accountable. >> reporter: key democratic leaders up here on capitol hill were also critical of mismanagement at the irs. sander levin, the top democrat on the house ways and means committee offered
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this reaction saying the president took a vital first step in achieving accountability. the treasury inspector general's recommendations must now be fully implemented to insure the same mistakes are not repeated. now to recap, what the president saying or aides saying the president will announce, name an acting irs commissioner, that is significant because a lot of republicans i talked to here on capitol hill say they are not inclined to confirm a permanent irs commissioner until they get answers in the investigation, uma. uma lots more questions remain. mike, thank you very much. gregg: for more on all the controversies now doing the white house let's bring if karl rove, who is a senior advisor and deputy chief of staff to president george w. bush. nina easton joins us, senior editor, washington columnist for "fortune" magazine. both are fox news contributors. nina, to what extent, if at all, does all of this, the three scandals and then some,
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do damage to the president's ability to achieve his agenda, whatever that is? >> or affect the narrative of his presidency. i think what you're having. the danger for this president you're having two narratives form right now in washington circles. one he is sort of the bystander president. he doesn't get involved. he is letting agencies fight it out. he's, and just doesn't roll up his sleeves and get down to the dirty work. the second and more troubling, mostly among his opponents but it is still a narrative that's feeding the washington storyline which is that a do anything to get elected president. and of course the, both the benghazi scandal and the irs scandal are feeding those storylines. so what you're going to see today is this continued effort by the white house to get ahead of those narratives and to try to change them and to be very aggressive as we saw yesterday, firing the irs commissioner, trying to get
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ahead of these scandals and try to put his imprint on it. gregg: karl, you authored a column today in the "wall street journal" which i read. let me quote from it. generally the president's instincts will more likely lead him in the months ahead to circle the wagons and become more prickly, and self-pitying. which may be redundant actually. expand on that. >> well, i drew from his monday night comments. he goes monday night after all this stuff begins to break to new york to do three fund-raisers. there he basically says, oh, look, i thought after i won the election it would, quote, break the fever and end the hyper partisanship in washington. basically all i had to do was win re-election and everyone would fall in line. he blamed rush limbaugh for the current difficulties. the problems we have with the irs, with benghazi, and, and with the ap are all the result of actions of his administration and yet somehow or another it is not
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his fault. it is all rush limbaugh's fault. i think this is simply the tone that will dominate. now they will do some smart pr things. i think nina had a very smart judgement there about their recent actions but consider his statement last night to the press. one, he is going to fire the guy who is the acting commissioner of the irs, which i understand had his has to end in june. so he removing him basically a couple weeks i recall. i thought it was interesting, stu miller said i look forward to an orderly transition. most of the americans walked away from the president's statement miller was leaving request his material in paper box and leaving. the president said i will implement all the ig recommendations and cooperate with congress. he had no choice but to do those two things. gregg: nina, jay carney has been the chief spokesman for the president obviously. has he lost credibility in all of this? >> i think what you've seen is that the presenceability
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on this mainstream press, has definitely shifted against the white house and against, and against jay carney. it is interesting, what i think a little-known fact, people talk about the liberal bias in the media but in fact, people who cover the white house, reporters, mainstream media reporters who cover the white house have been frustrated by this white house for a long time. they feel like they're talked down to. they feel like there is no access. that he goes over the, the president goes over their heads to talk to the people and doesn't even consider them important. and so this is a chance, what you're seeing, i think is the media suddenly turn and, you know, ironically of course it is on issues that affect directly the media in the case of the ap. and self-interest on their part but you are definitely seeing the media turn on this white house and you're seeing a lot of bottled up frustration come to the fore!. gregg: is there a pat an here, karl, when you ask the
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president about things like, the irs, news to us, he says. the app snooping scandal, didn't know anything about it. benghazi, there is no there there. is there a pattern? >> he is a disengaged and distant president. but on the other hand it is a bit appalling. i can't imagine the attorney general and the department of justice would not have given the office of general counsel inside the white house a head's up they were about ready to take this very broad step of asking for the phone records of 100 journalists and editors at the ap. i just can't believe that would happen. look, the president in some degree is responsible for some of these acts. remember in september and october of 2012, he went, excuse me, 10, he went out and denounced 501(c)(4) groups, conservative 501(c)(4) groups as enemies of democracy. you can't tell me some irs bureaucrat in cincinnati,
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washington, california, all of which were conducting investigations of conservative groups were not hardened by the president going out declaring groups they were looking at quote, enemies of deepak civil the president is disengaged and distant but he is now paying the price for it. gregg: karl rove, nina easton, thanks, appreciate it. >> thank you. uma we've got some other big news happening right now. o.j. simpson due back in court in his bid for a new trial. the former football star now serving a nine to 33 year sentence on a robbery and kidnapping conviction. the latest from las vegas. ripped apart. entire communities in ruins at this hour after a swarm of deadly tornados. we're live on the ground in north texas. >> we barely made it out. we just heard the sirens. >> there is nothing left. i mean our neighborhood is gone. it's just gone. [ male announcer ] running out of steam?
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uma this fox news alert. six people dead and dozens of others injured in a wave of texas tornados. we begin in bowie, south of the oklahoma border. videos of an incredibly twister. take a look. the monster storm turns across a lake leaving unspecified damages there. gregg: amazing. look at millsap, texas, storm chasers captured the exact moment when a tornado touches down. this is 40 miles west of fort worth. the powerful storm system bringing hail the size of grapefruit to the area. fortunately only minor injuries and damages are reported there. uma further to the south in granbury, texas, hard it heft with six deaths and dozens injuries a powerful tornado ripped through the town leaving two communities with incredible damage. you can clearly see the devastation in this aerial
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footage. a witness describes the home that that storm hit. >> it started tailing. and so we opened up the curtains instead in the middle of the house. then all of sudden you, things just started swirling. you could see stuff going all through the air. tin, tin roofs. our stuff started hitting the house. we were lucky. only one window got broken but three houses up, the top of the hill and everything's gone. houses, completely gone. and injured people. we took them and loaded them up in a pickup and took them to the hospital because couldn't get any emergency. uma unbelievable. casey stiegel is standing by live on the ground now in granbury, texas, with more, casey. >> reporter: uma, good to see you. let's face it we live in a day and age when most of us had carry one of these smartphones because of smartphones we get not only
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incredible pictures but incredible amateur video of these storms. that's what we've seen with the twisters that hit north texas last night into the overnight hours. this was the first deadly tornado system to hit this state since 2007. we have clearly had tornados since that time but no tornados that have killed people. we know for sure that six people lost their lives to mother nature's fury last night and seven still remain unaccounted for at this hour in granbury, which by the way is 70 miles south west of dallas. the sun had already gone down. the sirens sounded. people were hiding out in bathtubs, pulling mattresses on top of them for protection. >> we barely made it out. we just, heard the sirenses. i mean, our neighborhood is gone. it is just gone. hopefully, you know, we made
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it but, you know, there are people missing still. there's, there's a lot of hurt, hurt people out there still. but, you know, i tried my best, you know to stay calm for my kids because they were crying and screaming. >> look at that, it hit something, dude. >> it hit a house or something. >> it hit a house or something. >> maybe an outbuilding. [siren] >> reporter: taking you back to that frightening amateur video from bowie, texas. it really sends chills up your spine. that is 100 miles north of here. so that gives you an idea how large of a swath of this state that was affected. the national weather service in fact now saying that last night's storm system generating at least 10 different tornados in the northern portions of the lone star state. so the damage very widespread.
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it is very sporadic as we see with these storms. and once more, adding insult to injury perhaps, more storms in fact are forecasted for today. fortunately nothing severe but the skies are cloudy. rain is in the forecast and sadly, that is only going to hamper any search-and-rescue operations that are underway and any recovery efforts that are underway here in texas. uma. uma our hearts two out to the folks out there coping with those big losses. casey, thank you so much for that update. >> reporter: absolutely. gregg: not one, but 25 wildfires at least burning across minnesota right now, scorching homes, forcing evacuations. we're going to have an update on the battle to contain the destructive fires. and, o.j. simpson back in court today. day four of his new bid for a new trial. we're going to tell you who is expected to testify today. we're going to bring you all the latest developments from inside the courtroom next
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gregg: welcome back. we're getting new videotape of raging wildfires that have taken over entire towns, destroyed at least a dozen homes, burning thousands of acres in minnesota. take a look at this. at least 25 wildfires breaking out in the state. one of the largest, scorching more than 7,000 acres. it is only 25% contained right now. firefighters from more than 40 departments across the region are on the ground. crews built a bulldozer line around most of the fire. they have attacked hot spots with water-dropping planes and helicopters. firefighters are hoping lighter winds today will help contain the blaze. uma well, right now it is da o.j. simpson's
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bid to try to win a new trial. these are live pictures of the courtroom right now in las vegas. simpson is currently serving a nine to 33 year sentence for armed robbery, kidnapping and a assault with a deadly weapon. it is all related to a sting operation o.j. organized in vegas back in 2007 when he confronted memorabilia dealers to get back some items he claims were his. simpson is asking for a u into trial because he claims his attorney mishandled his case. here's what he said on the stand yesterday. >> did you ever have hear about a two to five? >> no. >> did you ever hear about a 30-month to five? >> no. >> did you ever hear about one count of robbery? >> no. >> and if you had heard about a plea offer for one count of robbery, even at a 30-to 5, would have taken that? >> i certainly would have considered it.
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i mean i would have had to look what the cost was going to be for me. if i knew it was going to end up costing what it ended costing, counting taxes i would have certainly taken it. uma alicia acuna is standing by live right now outside the courthouse in las vegas. alicia, what can we expect today? >> reporter: hi, uma. well, today the state will bring its witnesses but a lot of time has been spent on whether or not o.j. simpson's lawyer, yale galanter, withheld information about a possible plea offer from his client. as you just heard o.j. simpson says he was never told, but the former district attorney, the prosecutor at the time, testified there was no formal offer, just loose talk between attorneys about it. but o.j. says he wasn't privy to any of it and that could be a problem. >> reasonable people would say why wouldn't a lawyer go and tell their client that there is some time on the table? that's really the question
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of credibility. >> reporter: o.j. also testified that he was under the impression that he had a whole team of investigators and experts working on his case and that that is what he thought the $500,000 he was paying galanter was going toward. he found out later there were no investigators, or experts. >> how many times did he tell you that you could not be convicted? >> well a few times when things came up, i would say, i would be concerned about it and i talked to him. and he says, he said, relax, relax. o.j., i got it, i got it. i will take care of this. i got it. i'm getting you out of this. you're not going to be convicted. >> and did you trust mr. galanter? >> yes. >> reporter: yale galanter is expected to take the stand tomorrow. so, uma, we're expecting a much different version of events and simpson's attorneys say they may actually call him back to the stand as a rebuttal witness. uma? uma thanks very much for the update. gregg: boy, that should be interesting when galanter
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takes the witness stand. uma no doubt about that. gregg: it is never comfortable to testify against your former client. we're awaiting the president's joint news conference with the prime minister of turkey right now. mr. obama is expected to field questions on three major controversies. we'll look why the scandals have some members of his own party feeling pretty nervous. and a global push for adoption as stats show fewer kids are finding loving parents. an inside look how one organization is trying to change all that. >> right to a family is a basic human right. our policies have to start recognizing that. >> i love you, mom. >> i love you too. ♪ . everyone's retirement dream is different;
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gregg: welcome back. a fox news alert. we are awaiting remarks from president obama at the top of the hour. the president will be holding a joint news conference with the prime minister of turkey. he is expected to face questions though over some pretty big breaking controversies. we're hearing about growing concern within the president's own party some leading democrats are now warning their party is losing ground with the american people. chief political correspondent carl cameron live in washington with more on this. carl? >> reporter: hi, there, gregg. look, democrats have having their loyalties tested no denying that irs scandal and
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collection of ap phone records and benghazi all have the president and his party pretty much on defense the president had to make a public statement essentially calling on the acting irs commissioner to step down a month before he actually was supposed to. the investigations are revealing more information every day. democratic leader harry reid had to express his outrage. that does not mean reid or hill democrats will suddenly stop pushing the obama agenda. they are however rightfully worry that obama's second term blues and scandals will hurt them. >> anytime you're in a the second term of a presidency, you know the party begins to be defined by that president and, you can look at george w. bush. you can look at bill clinton, that, you know, afterwards, it took some time for the party to get a new identity outside of their leader. >> reporter: well, even before the irs admitted its misconduct and justice department admitted secret collection of ap phone records democrats were beginning to worry where the obama era will ultimately leave them. a senior official in bill
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clinton's second term warped in a recent 12-page memo, 12 pages quote, obama's successful 2008 campaign and 2012 re-election masks a party that is also in decline and one at considerable risk when obama is no longer on the scene. he notes that the democratic's party popularity dropped 15 points since obama took office. democrats lost a net of 52 house seats, two senate seats and nine governorships. so add these controversies on top of that, and democrats obviously have cause for worry, greg. gregg: indeed. carl cameron, live in washington. carl, thanks. uma okay. a live look at the dow after weekly jobless numbers out this morning. the dow is up a little in early trading after closing yesterday at new all-time highs. and the new jobs report though, hasn't helped much. the number of americans filing for unemployment claims jumping to 360,000. that is the highest number in six weeks, up 32,000 from last week. time now for our
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spotlight on small businesses. we're going to talk to entrepreneurs whose businesses are surviving and even thriving in these tough economic times. today we're checking out goldie blocks. it is an effort to get young girls excited about engineering solutions to problems with a new book and clever little game. debbie stirling is the ceo of gold did i blocks. with more now on this effort. thanks very much for joining us. >> thanks very much for having me. uma i know this is a push to inspire the next generation of young engineers targeted specifically to young girls. >> yes. so i studied engineering at stanford and there were very few women in the program. i always wanted to get more girls excited about it. it starts at very young age. when they're inundated with princesses i wanted to give them another option. uma you believe there is a gender gap that still remains in a big way for young women when it comes to
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science, math, technology? >> only 11% of the engineers in the u.s. are women yet engineering is the fastest growing job field in our country. it is critical to our economy. so women represent a huge, untapped pool. uma how is your business doing right now? >> it, i it is growing very quickly. it is taking off. i'm so excited because i think we're addressing this huge gap in the marketplace. this huge opportunity to really inspire girls to become more than just princesses. uma and you're hiring now too, aren't you. >> they're grabbing onto the idea and resonating with people. uma you're hiring right now, aren't you? >> we're hiring like crazy. we're such a small team. we have only four employees. we're headed to triple in size over the next six months. uma well it is great news. thank you very much for joining us we hope it inspires
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engineers. >> thank you so much for having me. uma: stressing importance of people in adoptive homes. actress angelina jolie has six children, three of whom were adopted overseas. now there is a growing movement to help ordinary people do the same thing. the both ends burning campaign is creating a culture of adoption worldwide and caught on film in a new documentary called, stuck. >> we made the request of the state department to get those 3,000 children out of haiti. >> all the children in the middle of an adoption process were able to come home. >> we saw ericson being carried out and we just ran into we don't need earthquakes or tsunamis. millions of children are in need. thousands are dying every day. why don't we do something about it. uma: so many children need homes. a search is showing that adoption numbers are down. "fortune" magazine columnist nina easton believes there is social stigma partially to blame. she writes quote in today's
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america a woman facing surprise pregnancy is to consider two options, abortion or single motherhood. domestic placement. infants plummeted even as the number of parents desperate for a baby grows. joining us the founder of the president of the both ends burning campaign and executive producer of the documentary, stuck. nina easton, a senior editor and washington columnist for "fortune" magazine and fox news contributor. great to have you both here today. >> thank you, uma. uma: let's talk about your personal story. i know you adopted a young girl? >> that's right. first of all i want to thank you for doing this. this is such an important issue. it is hard to get the attention of people. but yes, i went through a domestic adoption having looked into international adoption. i think the film, stuck, is so important showing how many children are overseas that need homes and can't, and, we can't access them. but, i looked at in this
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"washington post" piece, what i was looking at was domestic adoptions because they're in crisis too. when a young woman is in, facing a crisis pregnancy in this country, she's, only a tiny fraction of those young women choose to give life to their child and then a happy home to their child, which is what adoption is. instead we have 1.2 million abortions every year and we have 1.4 million single mothers who choose to keep their children after an unexpected pregnancy. plenty of those women can pull it off but a lot of women, that is probably a destructive decision, and they get confined to poverty and dependence on government programs and abusive partners and so on. partly it is because of this stigma about birth mothers. birth mothers are accused of wanting to give their child away. well, in fact a birth mother is someone who chooses life, love and a family for a child. it is such a heroic,
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courageous decision to make. uma: sure it is. absolutely. craig, let me get to you jump in here. your focus in our document stri are international adoptions and something you're very passionate about it. is it my understanding, 10 million children around the world are stuck in adoption agencies? >> no, they're stuck in orphanages despite the fact that there are countless families that want to adopt those children right now. we have available abundant solution. the best solution for many of the world's orphans which is a family which we're underutilizing. we made, stock, to -- stuck, to expose the tragedy. challenge the current expectation and let's start looking for bet ways to get kids out of orphanages and into families. uma: people believe the process takes too long and they're hesitant to move forward with international adoptions with each government has different rules about it. >> well, you're right. the average international
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adoption today takes 33 months. costs $28,000. and those two data points alone are rather prohibitive for many families. that's what we're trying to address. look at it in this context. in this country somebody can go out buy a gun in a matter of days, yet it takes us almost three years to determine the eligibility of a family who wants to adopt a child. we're really promoting a new system, or a better way where we can have greater safeguards, greater efficiency, and greater transparency, so that more families want to, that want to adopt these kids can adopt these kids. uma: well it is a important message and the two of are you doing such great work out there, getting your mission out there and letting people know more about this. >> can i just jump in real quickly, and mention, i choose adoption.org, i choose adoption.org, is a new campaign for birth mother he is. if you're interested, please check it out. uma: absolutely.
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thank you to both of you appreciate it. >> thank you. gregg: a great group. uma: a great group indeed. lots of kids need homes. gregg: we're awaiting, by the way, a joint news conference with the president and the turkish prime minister. two leaders are about to take questions as the white house faces three big scandals. and, we're going to have the latest on that coming up. i want to make things more secure. [ whirring ] [ dog barks ] i want to treat mo dogs. ♪ our business needs more cases. [ male announcer ] where do you want to take your business? i need help selling art. [ male announcer ] from broadband to web hosting to mobile apps, small business solutions from at&t have the security you need to get you there. call us. we can show you how at&t solutions can help you do what you do... even better. ♪
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gregg: welcome back to fox news alert. we're awaiting a joint news conference now at the white house. in just a few minutes president obama and turkish prime minister erdogan will take questions in the rose garden but just his news conference with british prime minister david cameron was overshadowed by scandal. well, the same thing could happen here. president obama likely to field questions on benghazi, the irs profiling controversy, the snooping of the ap records, the list goes on and on. bob cusack is the managing editor of "the hill." jeff earl is washington bureau chief for "the new york post.". bob, to what extent do you think this is really hampering the president's agenda? >> oh, i think a lot. i mean the president's second term has gotten off to a rocky start. gun control is basically dead. immigration reform also teetering. now the white house has to play defense on these
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issues. i think they picked up their game yesterday but for a while over the weekend they were just really deferring to other agencies and jay carney was taking the heat from reporters and now the president is doing something he really wasn't doing over the weekend and that is leading and taking charge. i think the president will have to say the buck stops with me and there will be more heads that roll probably in the irs scandal. uma: jeff, there are a questions still remain about the e-mails that were released yesterday. many people are still raising questions about what those e-mails did not contain, for example. there was no reference at all to, or mention of the youtube video that would become key in the talking points that were put out by this white house. >> that's right. and you know, another thing that the e-mails don't show is they don't show a lot of pushback from the white house on the state department's, you know, real desire to wipe away talk of terrorism and al qaeda in those talking points. so, while technically it might be, you know, somewhat
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accurate to say, gee, the white house was not driving this train they had all kinds of opportunities to really shape this the e-mails show incredible amount of input across all agencies across the government and somebody could have spoken up change this. gregg: you know, bob, i was watching last friday when jay carney was fielding questions from the press corps and he took quite a beating. >> yeah. gregg: has, has the president and through his spokesperson lost some credibility here? >> you know, i think so. i mean there's no doubt about it that the press has gotten, into it with jay carney and this white house, especially on the ap investigation by the department of justice. that eric holder said he recused himself of. he also said in testimony yesterday, there was no written record of him recusing himself. so that has already raised questions. and there's, definitely been more volatile relationship between the press and the white house because some of these, these stories have
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changed. whether it is gregory hicks testifying on the state department or these talking points, you know, the press is really just trying to get at the whole story and republicans are saying, okay, release not only these e-mails on benghazi but everything. so i think these probes are going on for months and where they lead we don't know. but it will cause the white house to play defense and that hurts the president's agenda. uma: geoff, people are saying there is a big gap that remains, hours that have not been accounted for in terms of e-mails that we're still waiting to hear in terms of what transpired in those days following the attack. what's your biggest concern at this point as the president tries to quell the scandal that continues to surround this white house? >> well, what i'll be looking for this afternoon is how combative is the president? because at his last press conference he really came out, punching on benghazi, even at the time, you know, when talking about the irs, he was much more willing on
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that scandal, he is much more willing to criticize members of his own administration who acted improperly. so, i think he has got, i think what the release of e-mails show is some kind of a new direction. we don't know how this is going to go yet. obviously they have not released every e-mail that the republicans want to see. there are thousands out there and those first 48 hours are not fully accounted for. let's see if this shows new strategy, engagement, giving the hill what it needs hopefully this tamps down or whether they will still fight. uma: thank you, gentlemen, very much. we'll be standing by for that news conference hoping for some more answers. another topic that could be addressed at this news conference the civil war in syria. reports that nearly 100,000 people have died as the tension between israel and syria escalates to new heights. fox news obtaining exclusive video from the israeli-syrian border. a live report from the border coming your way, next.
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uma: this fox news alert. conflict between israel and syria escalating amid new reports that warning hinting it is considering further military strikes on syria. two weeks ago israeli warplanes carried out two strikes on syria hitting storehouses of long-range missiles and the country's main chemical weapons facility of the israel also warning syria it would face crippling consequence if it is retall lates. the heightened tensions coming as turkey's prime minister is about to hold a joint news conference with president obama in the rose garden. primary topic, the civil war in syria. turkey borders syria and has been drawn into the civil war taking in many refugees
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and even exchanging fire. leland vittert is standing by live in the golan heights where israel just moved its artillery to the high ground overlooking syria. leland? >> reporter: uma, we're just about a half mile from the is railingly-syria border. we're listening to the sill war in syria rage on from this side of the border. go ahead and zoom in here. you can see the battle line. you see the israeli border right there. just to the left is one of the villages that has been under bombardment we've been experiencing here. for the first time ever, our cameras caught the latest step here in israelily involvement in the civil war. israeli special forces soldiers making their way out of syria on a mission there inside. what they were doing, we're not sure but this certainly shows a level of involvement, a level of concern by the israelis about what's going on. clearly the extremist threat that is going on inside of syria. the extremists namely
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al qaeda-backed militants are going to get weapons and launch an attack against the jewish state. the israelis also moved forward some of their heavy artillery here in order to have an instant response to anything that goes on the border. just as we were driving along the border, we saw them unloading the tanks, heavy armor, against the peace accord, the civil cease-fire agreement for them to have here. so far that agreement now has been ripped up and israel is rewriting the rule book. uma, back to you. >> leland, thank you very much. gregg: moments away from president obama's news conference with the turkish prime minister. the president could face some pretty tough questions over some three big commodity verses. -- controversies. we'll nope eeeeh... oh, guys let's leave the deals to hotels.com. ooh that one! nice.
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gregg: a fox news alert, we are awaiting the beginning of a joint news conference with president obama and the turkish prime prime prime minister erdogan. mr. obama is facing a barrage of questions, though, on a trifecta of scandals. welcome to our new hour of "happening now," i'm gregg jarrett. uma: the primary focus of the visit, the brutal civil war in syria, turkey's neighbor. the latest, turkey blaming agents of syria's regime for the huge car bombings killing more than 50 people in a turkish
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border town. four suspects rounded up. turkey, home to some 400,000 syrian refugees. chief white house foreign affairs correspondent be wendell goler is joining us live from the rose garden. the president's domestic troubles are likely to dominate the american reporters' questions, isn't that true? >> reporter: count on it. each press corps will get a couple of questions, but you can reporters, at least, to ask more than one. the white house really hasn't condemned and the president hasn't commented on the justice department's decision to subpoena associated press phone records. he'll likely be pushed on that. yesterday's decision to replace the acting commissioner of the internal revenue service hasn't satisfied republicans who are concerned about the extra effort it took tea party groups to get tax-exempt status. house speaker john boehner said somebody ought to go to jail. the president seemed concerned that the inevitable oversight hearings on this will turn
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partisan. here's what he had to say. >> congress, democrats and republicans, owe it to the american people to treat that authority with the responsibility it deserves and in a way that doesn't smack of politics or partisan agendas. >> reporter: while the hundred pages of e-mails released yesterday on the benghazi tragedies indicate that the state department was involved from start to finish in crafting the talking points, not just the final draft, but they also suggest the cia never really challenged the idea that the attack that killed the u.s. ambassador and three others grew out of a protest. uma? uma: as for turkey, what's the prime minister looking for in his trip to washington, wendell? >> reporter: first off, he wants international help in dealing with these 400,000 refugees who crossed into his country since the start of the civil war, and he wants more pressure on bashar al assad. turkish authorities blame syria's intelligence for a car bombing this past weekend that killed 51 people. meanwhile, while the president
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is ramping up aid to the opposition in syria, he's drawn the line at providing the military assistance in part because he doesn't want to see another libya, a country awash in weapons and no real authority. the president and prime minister erdogan also likely to discuss cyprus which has for years been divided between turkey and greece. the prime minister would like reunification talks to begin -- resume this year. uma: all right, wendell. standing by at the white house. thank you for that update. gregg: as we await the joint news conference, we look at the three scandals putting the white house in damage control mode right now, either the benghazi talking points, irs misconduct, justice department seizures of the associated press' records. bret baier joins us, anchor of "special report," chris wallace anchor of fox news sunday. chris, how would you assess the president's and the white house's handling of this situation so far? i mean, three scandals, you know, it hasn't been a great
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week. >> no, it's been a bad week. in fact, somebody in the white house called it hell week. but they were trying desperately to get out ahead of those scandals yesterday after taking a lot of incoming in the previous days this week. the president, of course, about 6:17 last night making the statement that, basically, he had fired the irs commissioner. in addition, there was a document dump late in the afternoon. the white house releasing a hundred pages of e-mails about the talking points on benghazi. and then in a kind of interesting thing at the same time that the administration is defending a very broad subpoena of the phone records of ap reporters, the white house came out and said that it supports a federal shield law to protect reporters and their confidential sources. i'm not sure that's going to convince a lot of the people who have their subpoenaed records, phone records. but clearly, the white house feels and i think a lot of people in washington feel the big story, gregg, the one with really the potential for scandal is the irs story because that's new, i it affects real people.
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you're talking about the political targeting of conservative groups by the irs despite repeated denials over the last couple of years by the irs officials that there had been any political targeting. and they're now focusing, gregg, on one specific meeting, on august 4, 2011, when the irs' general counsel reportedly -- although they're now saying it was somebody from the office, not the general counsel themself -- but somebody from that office met with irs officials about the targeting. the reason that's so important is the irs's general counsel reports to the general counsel from the treasury. if this leaps from the irs to the treasury which is a cabinet-level job, timothy geithner then was the treasurety secretary, that really does make it a much more political issue. gregg: you know, bret, i think chris put his finger on the critical point be here, as he always does, and that is, you know, to what extent, if at all, is the white house involved in the irs scandal and how high
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this goes? how worried do you think the white house is about this? >> well, i think they're worried about it. i think yesterday was an effort to try to deal with it. however, it's important to point out while the president expressed outrage and said that he instructed secretary lew, his treasury secretary, to ask for, request and accept then the resignation of the acting irs commissioner steven miller, i was told by an official close to miller last night that the acting commissioner was set to leave that post in early june anyway and was set to leave the irs completely in two months. current controversy aside. so he was ready to leave despite the fact, i mean, before any of this already happened. he was acting commissioner and was set to leave the irs. so that's a question for the white house. that's a question for the
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president. you know, was this guy fired when he was going to leave anyway? be i think we're going to hear about a new irs commissioner today, but it doesn't stop the questions, and we just heard the house speaker boehner talking about how these investigations are only going to ramp up. gregg: yeah. you know, chris, part of the problem is that the other people who may have been involved in this targeting of conservative groups, i mean, these are, you know, civil servants, they have all kinds of protections, legal protections. so that punishing them or taking action against them in some way would be very difficult. >> well, look, i find it hard to believe -- and i think most people find it hard to believe -- that this thing began and ended with a bunch of mid-level civil service people in cincinnati in the tax-exempt organization office, the organization that was part of the irs that was dealing with applications for tax-exempt
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status. i mean, this thing had gone on for a couple of years, since 2010, and they had been told by their boss in 2011 to stop doing it. they continued to do it. there are now indications that some of the requests for added information from some of these tax-exempt agencies came from offices of the irs in washington and in california. so this thing isn't going to end with a couple of people, you know, pushing paper in cincinnati. obviously -- now, we don't know how far we went, but we do know, as i say, that it wasn't just in cincinnati, and we do know various top people in the irs, including miller, the commissioner who's now out, had been told about it in back in 2012 at the same time he was telling the congress that there was no such targeting. so, you know, this thing isn't going to end with just a couple of civil service people. gregg: no, it probably won't. i may have to cut you off quickly,bret, because it looks as though the president is about to come out.
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jay carney, boy, he has taken a real beating, hasn't he? >> it has been a tough week if you are the white house press secretary, jay carney. but it's because of what he has said before, particularly on the white house interaction and the state department interaction on the talking points. after these e-mails came out, the 94 pages last night on the benghazi talking points, it directly contradicts what he said from the podium numerous times, that the white house and state department didn't have any involvement in changing the substance other than to change stylistic, is what he said from the briefing room changes about the building itself, the facility, the consulate. be and those e-mails prove otherwise. i think, you know, you'll see some heated press briefings to come because the, it seems, the reporters in that room are engaged on a number of fronts pushing back on what they hear,
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not necessarily being true. gregg: yeah. looked like everybody in that press briefing last friday didn't believe a word that jay carney was peddling. but we'll wait and see what happens next. guys, if you could stick around, that'd be wonderful. we just got word that the president is ten minutes behind now, so the news conference -- no surprise. >> reporter: f. >> that's a normal occurrence. we heard that last night. gregg: it's sort of clintonian, isn't it? chris wallace, bret baier, thanks very much. uma: okay, let's get some background on turkish prime minister erdogan. he is an islamist. in 1994 he was elected mayor of turkey's most populace city which is istanbul. in 1998 he was convicted of inciting religious hatred after recruiting a controversial poem about islam. he was sentenced to ten months in prison and resigned as mayor. after a constitutional amendment
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allowing those who serve jail time to serve in government, erdogan took the office of prime minister in may of 2003. and turkey does face the challenge of hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the civil war in neighboring syria as a member of nato. the country recently received a shipment of american patriot missiles to protect itself, but just days ago turkey suffered one of the worst terror attacks in decades. two car bombs exploding one right after the other killing more than 40 people. he turkish government blaming the assad regime saying no crime will be left without a response. gregg: and let's take a look again at the rose garden of the white house. the fallout from the irs targeting of groups opposed to the president's agenda, how this could impact your health care. we're going to have a live report and then, obviously, we're going to carry the press conference live. uma: and we're also going to bring you the latest in the search for the missing after powerful, deadly tornadoes
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flattened neighborhoods in texas, killing at least six people. parts of the heartland that could see severe weather and tornadoes over the next 48 hours. stay with us.
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uma: welcome back, everybody. well, as we await that white house news conference in the rose garden, attorney general eric holder taking heat over the justice department's seizure of associated press phone records. the ap calling it a massive and unprecedented intrusion. at a house judiciary committee hearing, attorney general holder defended the justice department's actions but avoided answering some very tough questions. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge is joining us now live in washington with more. >> reporter: well, thank you, uma, and good morning. a republican congressman of florida and texas along with 27 other republican members of the house have sent this letter to attorney general eric holder and his deputy asking for the appointment of a special counsel
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to investigate whether the seizure of these ap phone records violates the first amendment. the letter reads in part, quote: >> r eporter: with the seizure of the ap phone records in four ap bureaus including the house of representatives affecting 100 reporters, republicans see a larger, more fundamental issue at play. >> the recent acknowledgment by the department of justice that they have obtained -- [inaudible] has many people concerned. and while i appreciate this as an ongoing investigation, i hope that you will be as forthcoming as possible in addressing the issue here today. >> reporter: also this morning another senate republican raised the issue of the ap phone records. let's listen.
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>> think about that for a second. now all of a sudden what are you afraid of? i'm not calling that reporter back. because their phone might be tapped. my number may show up on their records. because the justice department has just shown that they're willing to do that. >> reporter: one of the interesting developments this morning is while there were questions about the ap phone record seizure at that senate committee hearing, publicly there were no answers from the fbi director whose agents are the ones really doing the leg work or the heavy lifting, so it may have been raised, uma, in that closed or classified section afterward. uma: we still have more questions than answers, catherine. thank you very much. >> reporter: you're welcome. gregg: new information on one of the deadly twisters that ripped through northern texas. the national weather service now saying the twister that hit granberry, texas, was very powerful, an ef4 storm packing winds about 200 miles per hour. at least six people are dead, seven are still missing, dozens
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have been injured. the city of clyburn, texas, just one community, declaring a state of emergency. the twisters destroyed homes and leveled entire neighborhoods. chief meteorologist rick reichmuth is standing by live in the fox weather center. this was a monster, wasn't it? >> reporter: yeah, it really was. we didn't expect anything to be this strong yesterday. you can see this on this radar image, a few of these cells. when you see these individual cells, those are where we see all these tornadoes, and we had about four on the ground at the same time here. one right up here across the red river valley across i-20 and that one in granberry. there were ten preliminary reports of tornadoes and that one you're just saying now they found ef4 winds of about 140 miles an hour. all kinds of national weather service people investigating and doing all of the searching. want to take you forward over the next couple of days. next couple days we'll see a few
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isolated severe storms here across the deep south. today not that bad, tomorrow not that bad. there's another system, though, that's going to be pulling in off of the west coast over the next couple of days. this is going to set up the weekend of potentially some very severe weather. you see this big kink in the jet stream here, call it highly amplified, and we haven't seen a big, severe weather outbreak yet so far this year. we have a saturday situation here, a sunday situation across the plains and monday heading in towards parts of the mississippi river valley and again down towards dallas by monday, so a three-day weekend event we're going to be monitoring. gregg: well, we're going to be busy. rick reichmuth, >> reporter: you bet. uma: and we are just moments away from president obama's news conference at the white house. why mr. obama could be making another big announcement in the irs scandal. stand by for that. i'm here at my house on thanksgiving day, and i have a massive heart attack right in my driveway. the doctor put me on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor
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gregg: right now the military is saying that two american service members were among 15 people killed in an attack in afghanistan's capital today. two of them were children. be conor powell is live in kabul with the latest. conor? >> reporter: this was the deadliest attack in kabul this year, and the target appeared to have been americans. now, sometime after 8 a.m. or so this morning a vehicle full of explosives rammed in and exploded next to a u.s. military convoy wounding more than 30 people, killing at least 15 including two american soldiers and four native civilian advisers, several which are believed to be americans. now, several of the afghan killed were chirp on the way to -- children on the way to school. a taliban-affiliated group immediately took responsibility for the attack, the game group that killed seven airline pilots working for the u.s. embassy last fall.
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they're one of the taliban-affiliated insurgent groups that u.s. officials believed was the most likely to reconcile with the afghan government. the violence has dropped considerably across most of afghanistan including here in kabul, but it is still a very violent country. now, afghan forces are in the lead in most parts of afghanistan. u.s. forces have begun to withdraw. but the question, gregg, has always been whether or not afghan security forces are capable and competent enough to handle security. today's attack proves that the taliban and insurgents really can strike deep in the heart of government-controlled areas raising questions about whether or not the taliban and the insurgency will still have the upper hand when u.s. and international troops pull out. gregg? gregg: conor powell live in afghanistan, thanks. uma: okay. we want to wring you this fox news alert. we have very little information, but this is what we know about a college apparently in a lockdown situation at this hour. the schools in that area after
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police are pursuing a suspect, we don't know the exact details as to what led to this lockdown, but when we do get the information, we will bring that to you and update the story. gregg: and we are awaiting president obama's news conference in the rose garden -- it's actually rose less -- at this hour with the prime minister of turkey. it was supposed to have been begun 25 minutes ago, but the president generally doesn't pay attention to the clock. we are expecting, though, some serious questions about several scandals, so we're going to bring you the news conference live. [ musick ] i knew there were a lot of tech jobs available out there. i knew devry university would give me the skills that i needed to make one of those tech jobs mine. we teach cutting-edge engineering technology, computer information systems, networking and communications management -- the things that our students need to know in the world today. our country needs more college grads to help fill all the open technology jobs. to help meet that need, here at devry university,
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gregg: welcome back. we are moments away from president obama's news conference in the rose garden of the white house. bret baier, anchor of "special report," chris wallace, anchor of "fox news sunday." bret, how do you think this is going to go today? some pretty tough questions off the top? >> sure. at least on the u.s. side. i think there are question marks on what the turkish side will ask. but syria, clearly, a major concern over there as they've just had an attack along the border there, and the situation in syria and the deterioration is a big deal. so i expect that to be the questions. but from the u.s. side as we saw in just the one-on-one, in other words, the one question on either side with the british prime minister earlier this week, you'll probably get that
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multipronged attempt by whatever reporter stands up to ask a pretty long question to president obama since there are so many things going on. and the last time, quickly, he asked, he was asked about the irs scandal in particular, he said he found out about it from the press on -- and he said, i think it was last friday. and that got a lot of attention because his white house counsel, we now know, knew about the scandal and what was happening at the irs weeks ago. so why wasn't the president informed? who knows, you may get a question about that. uma: chris, it's uma here. in terms of the benghazi story at the moment, did you get a sense as to why the documents that were released yesterday were considered classified since there wasn't anything really earth-shattering per se that came out of those documents, at least the ones i read, to suggest that they needed to be classified? what did you think? >> well, look, one of the things that's been going -- an issue in
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washington for decades, uma, has been the overclassification of stuff, and basically classified means anything we don't want to put out there. this was, obviously, the inner workings of the administration. there were no great secrets. the secret was or the thing they were classifying was the fact that there was a real fight going on between the cia and the state department about who was going to get some of the blame for what had happened, the terrible tragedy in benghazi. the cia, at least initially, wanted to point out that it had been warning the state department for some months about the deteriorating security situation in benghazi, in eastern libya, the rise of extreme i'm sorries, the -- extremists, the spread of weapons. the state department, for understandable reasons, didn't want that out there. this was originally talking points to go to the democratic, the top democrat on the house intelligence committee. but, obviously, once it was put out, it was going to go out to everybody. so it seemed more like political classification than national security classification. gregg: you know, bret, the
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evidence would seem to suggest that the state department and maybe the government at large knew that benghazi was a death trap and didn't do anything about it. and then when americans came under attack and four were murdered, arguably, they didn't do anything about it. and then after wards they -- afterwards they deleted what is, again, i use the word arguably, the truth of the matter, that it was an al-qaeda-linked terrorist attack. and then finally, they arguably retaliated against those who wanted to tell the truth. i mean, this is not a good scenario for the white house. >> well, for the white house or for the state department in this, in this back and forth. i think there are a lot of questions that have yet to be answered. we've talked about this a lot not just on these talking points, and it's important to realize that benghazi is much more about that security question. we've had a lot of reporting for a long time.
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catherine herridge early on about the security inadequacies, jennifer griffin about the military assets and what was available and not available on the night of that attack, james rosen on following up on the politics and the back and forth afterwards. and these three acts have played out over the past nine months. and now we are getting to the point where you have the house speaker fully engaged, you have republicans engaged, and you have democrats up on capitol hill calling for more hearings on benghazi. i think that it dose well beyond -- goes well beyond these talking points, but the talking points do illuminate direct contradictions to what jay carney and the state department have said on this issue. gregg: well, it makes it appear as though for during an election campaign the partisan politics played a role. and that is, that has to be deeply troubling. >> well, i mean, the allegation, is that it was motivated by partisan politics.
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and until you get to that point, until you finally get someone that is going to say i was told x, y and z, because of x, y and z i don't think you can get to that motivation, but surely that's the allegation. and there will be more testimony, and i think there will be more whistleblowers because of the additional attention. uma: chris, you know, regarding those e-mails again, the fact that there was not anything related to the critical two-day gap from where these e-mails began, what do you make of that? >> well, it is interesting that the e-mails really start i think, what, on friday the 14th, susan rice appeared on "fox news sunday" and the other four shows on sunday, the 16th, and you kind of wonder what was going on tuesday, wednesday and thursday in all this exchange of e-mails. i will are say about the partisan politics side of it, at least at this point the one interesting thing you have to say in defense of the white
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house is there is no indication in any of these e-mails of any partisan deleting, scrubbing of the facts. there certainly was scrubbing that went on, but it seems to have been institutional of the state department. victoria newland, who was the spokeswoman for hillary clinton, trying to protect their d. against alleged that they had not heeded warnings from the cia, that they didn't want it out there that this was an al-qaeda-linked attack. but there's no indication, you don't have an e-mail that says -- and maybe that'll still come out -- that david plouffe or dave axlerod, in other words, somebody in the pretty l unit of the white house was saying, hey, look, we've got an election, we've got to get this out there. again, it may come out, but it hasn't soft. gregg: there's a bit of a light drizzle as you can tell from the umbrellas that have popped up from the rose garden. chris, let me get back to you on that. that one e-mail in which victoria knewland says on behalf
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of the building and, you know, you have to assume that's the leadership and that is maybe hillary clinton, we don't want to get blamed. we don't want to get blamed by congress for the deaths of four americans. i mean, that's, essentially, what the e-mail says, doesn't it? >> oh, absolutely. i mean, it's hard to say it is what it says, basically, why do we want to put this information out there and give it to congress when we know they're going to use it to beat us up. there's certainly, you know, some positive posterior coverinu will, bureaucratic posterior covering by the state department in those e-mails also when she says, you know, pushes back when they haven't changed the talking points enough. she says this is going to cause problems in the building's leadership. but again, i just need to point out that's bureaucratic protection, self-protection. that's the state department saying we don't want the cia to say, hey, you warned us, and you guys didn't do anything about it.
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at least explicitly in those e-mails there's no evidence of a partisan side linked to the campaign. in terms of trying to protect their leadership, there certainly is that. >> let me just point out, gregg, that -- right. in the e-mails it does not say that, and it's important to point that out. now, why the president said what he said after that day, after appearing in the same rose garden that we'll see just moments from now in which he said act of terror and then characterized it on "60 minutes" and was asked by steve kroft, you went out of your way to avoid using the word "terrorism," and he says, right. and after that asked by joy behar on "the view," was it terrorism, and he says we're still investigating. why the president chose to make those decisions about characterizing it the way he chose to characterize it is another question entirely. but in these e-mails, we are right to point out that there's no indication of the partisan
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line we've got an election coming up seven weeks from now. gregg: all right. we continue -- >> hey, gregg? gregg: go ahead. >> you know, in addition to all these scandals, they really need a clock in the white house. [laughter] i mean, ten minutes has become 25, and two minutes has become ten. i mean, i will give the president a break here. as opposed to last night when it was totally in his control, obviously, this depends on the meeting that he's having with prime minister erdogan and, obviously, they're trying to work out what they're going to say. and we shouldn't minimize for all the scandals, the situation in syria is a pretty darn serious one as well and what the administration is going to say and do in response to the growing crisis in syria is important. but, boy, they sure don't know how to tell time out there, do they? gregg: they don't, and it's always curious to me the sort of -- i mean, george w. bush was always on time. and bill clinton, obviously, and you know because you were covering the white house back then, was never on time.
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and so obama is more of the latter than the former. >> i think that's fair to say. [laughter] >> fair to say. uma: all right. well, as we wait for the white house news conference to given, we are now hearing president obama could appoint a new irs commissioner as early as today. yesterday the president announced the acting commissioner's resignation as the scandal continues to grow. doug mckelway is joining us now live with details on what's developing at this time. >> reporter: there's an interesting component to this story, uma, regarding senate democrats and their potential involvement in the irs scandal. many of the same senate democrats who are now clamoring to investigate the irs' excessive scrutiny of conservative groups were singing a very, very different tune before the scandal. max baucus, for example, the chairman of the senate finance committee, wrote then-irs commissioner doug schumer in 2010 quoting now from a letter he wrote:
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>> r eporter: and in addition to that, in march of last year seven senate democrats wrote the irs urging it to impose strict caps on spending by nonprofits. former irs commissioner mark everson told fox news that the irs pays very, very close attention to these types of congressional demands. >> but the point here is it's totally appropriate for chairman baucus to raise that issue, but anything that the service would do in terms of looking at c4s should have been evenhanded, and it wasn't, and that's the shame here. >> reporter: as hearings get underway, the first scheduled for tomorrow at 9 a.m., congress will want to ferret out who allowed this uneven approach to examining tax-exempt requests and whether it may have been part of a political culture at the irs. during the past two decades, individual irs employees
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contributed $840,000 to political causes, but an overwhelming majority of that, two-thirds of that money, benefited democrats and liberal-leaning organizations according to a study by the center for public integrity. the irs commissioner in 2010 when conservative groups first became a target was douglas shulman. according to the federal elections committee, he contributed $500 to the dnc in 2004. uma, back to you. uma: doug, thank you very much. gregg: and we are waiting for the president, obama time. he's running about 40 minutes behind schedule. no news there. we do expect mr. obama to answer questions about a series of scandals; benghazi, associated press snooping, the irs targeting groups. could be a tough news conference, so stay tuned. we'll be right back. do we have a mower? no. a trimmer?
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gregg: welcome back. police in new orleans arresting the suspect wanted in the mother's day parade shooting. police say 19-year-old hakim scott fired into the crowd wounding 19 people. investigators report they were flooded with tips after releasing this surveillance videotape. scott was already facing gun and drug possession charges. he was out of jail on $15,000 bond at the time of the shooting. police are now charging scott
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with 20 counts of attempted second-degree murder. uma: fox news alert, the national weather service is saying that a tornado that leveled a neighborhood in texas killing six people was a very powerful e4 storm packing winds up to 200 miles an hour. harris faulkner's joining us live now with more on this. >> reporter: yeah. and, you know, uma, a lot of times they will take a day to pick back through the debris and so see which direction and what was lifted off the ground to try to figure out that ef rating. brand new pictures coming into our newsroom. this is granberry, texas, the worst of the human toll happened here. six people didn't make it through the rash of twisters. more than a hundred others are injured. and at last check seven people are unexpected for with -- unaccounted for with authorities still going door to door to pick through the debris for them. a division of mobile homes, a
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hundred or so of them, took a twister dead on, home officials. people who lived through all of this saying they were inside their closets as they heard the wind whipping and glass smashing everywhere. now, not far from here we have some more video, this is clyburn, texas. even before the weather was right on top of them, survivors said they could feel the pressure change. their ears started to pop. walls inside their homes began to move in and out before they ever heard the twister that touched down in clyburn. so we're seeing the tipoff of this season with still a lot of days more of this to come. violent weather, we're told, in the forecast for our heartland states through the weekend. you heard rick reichmuth talking all the way through monday through the mid part of our country. many viewers took to twitter last night putting out photos and telling stories. and just on a side note, unexpectedly, uma, i joined them. i was on the phone with my mom when she said, gotta go, sirens.
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we're heading into the -- uma: harris, we've got the president. gregg: president obama and the turkish prime minister. let's listen. >> it is a great pleasure to welcome my friend, prime minister erdogan, back to the white house. this is also another opportunity for me to return the extraordinary hospitality that the prime minister and the turkish people showed me on my visit to turkey four years ago, and that included my visit to the prime minister's beautiful hometown of istanbul. this visit reflects the importance that the united states places on our relationship with our ally, turkey, and i value so much the partnership that i've been able to develop with prime minister erdogan. today we discussed the many areas in which our countries cooperate including afghanistan where our troops serve bravely together, the g20 where we
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promote our shared prosperity and iran where we agree it is critical that we do not see that country acquire a nuclear weapon and potentially trigger an arms race throughout the region. given our shared interest in peace, i want to note the prime minister's efforts to normalize relations with israel. this will benefit both the turkish and israeli people and can also help us make progress on a two-state solution including an independent palestinian state. today we focused on three areas that i want to highlight. first be, we agreed to keep expanding trade and investment. over the past four years, our trade has surged, and u.s. exports to turkey have more than doubled. as the united states pursues a new trade and investment partnership with the e.u., i want to make sure that we also keep deepening our economic ties with turkey. so we're creating a new
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high-level committee that will focus on increasing trade and investment between our two countries and will help fuel turkish innovation. and the progress that turkey's economy has made over the last several years, i think, has been remarkable, and the prime minister deserves much credit for some of the reforms that have already taken place. second, as nato allies, we're reaffirming our solemn commitment to our mutual security. mr. prime minister, on behalf of the american people, i want to express our condolences to the turkish people and the victims of the outrageous bombings that took place. as always, the united states stands with you as you defend be your nation against -- defend your nation against terrorism. we want to thank you for the cooperation you've provided us in the threats against the united states, and i want to take this opportunity to commend you and the turkish people for your courage in seeking an historic and peaceful resolution
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of the pkk violence that has plagued turkey for so long. and just as the united states has stood with you in your long search for security, we will support efforts in turkey to uphold the rule of law and good governance and human rights for all. finally, we spent a great deal of time on an issue that has wracked the region, the issue of syria. under the prime minister's leadership, the turkish people have shown extraordinary generosity to the syrians who have found refuge in turkey, and i know this is a heavy burden. i've made it clear again today that the united states is going to keep on helping countries in the region including turkey shoulder this burden doing our part as a major donor of humanitarian aid to the syrian people including those refugees in turkey. and we're going to keep working with our turkish partners to deliver the food, shelter and medicine that's needed to save lives. at the same time, we're going to
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keep increasing the pressure on the assad regime and working with the syrian opposition. the prime minister has been at the forefront of the international effort to push for a transition to a democratic syria without bashar assad. and turkey's going to play an important role as we bring representatives of the regime and opposition together in the coming weeks. we both agree that assad needs to go. he needs to transfer power to a transitional body. that is the only way that we're going to resolve this crisis. and we're going to keep working for a syria that is free from assad's tyranny, that is intact and inclusive of all ethnic and religious groups and that's the source of stability, not extremism. because it's in the profound interests of all our nations, especially turkey. so again, mr. mr. prime ministei want to thank you for being here and for being such a strong ally and part her in the region and around the world. i know that michelle appreciates
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the opportunity to hose mrs. erdogan and your two wonderful daughters this morning. i'm looking forward to our dinner tonight, and as always, among the topics where i appreciate your advice is close to our hearts, and that's how to raise our daughters well. you're a little ahead of me in terms of, in terms of their ages. with the prime minister's permission, i want to make one other point. there's been intense discussion in congress hately around the 25eu -- lately around the attacks in benghazi. we lost four brave americans, patriots who accepted the risks that come with service because they know that their contributions are vital to our national interests and national security. i am intent on making sure that we do everything we can to prevent another tragedy like this from happening. but that means we owe it to them and all who serve to do everything in our power to protect our personnel serving overseas.
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that's why at my direction we've been taking a series of steps that were recommended by the review board after the incident. we're continuing to review our security at high-threat diplomatic posts including the size and nature of our presence, improving training for those headed to dangerous posts, increasing intelligence and warning capabilities, and i've directed the defense department to insure that our military can respond lightning quick in times of crisis. but we're not going to be able to do this alope. we're going to -- alone. we're going to need congress as a partner. so i've been in discussions, and my team has been in discussions with both democrats and republicans, and i'm calling on congress to work with us to support and fully fund our budget request to improve the security of our embassies around the world. we also need congress to work with us to provide the resources and new authorities so we can fully implement all of the recommendations of the
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accountability review board. and we're going to need congress' help in terms of increasing the number of our marine corps guard who protect our embassies. so i want to say to members of congress in both parties, we need to come together and truly honor the sacrifice of those four courageous americans and better secure our diplomatic posts around the world. and i should add, by the way, that we're getting some help from the turkish government on some of these issues. that's how we learn the lessons of benghazi, that's how we keep faith with the men and women who we send overseas to represent america, and that's what i will stay folksed on as -- focused on as commander in chief. i'm sorry the weather's not fully cooperating with our lovely rose garden press conference, but i think we'll be okay. >> thank you. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: mr. president, distinguished members of the press, ladies and gentlemen, my
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dear friend, president of the united states, a friend and ally, i am here to -- i'm once be here in washington to have meetings with the president. i would like to express my thanks for the be hospitality that have been shown to us on this occasion on behalf of myself and my delegation. in the president's person, i would like to express our condolences for the terror attack that took place in boston. we express our condolences to the american people. gregg: so the president making a preemptive remark about benghazi in this rose garden ceremony. bret baier joins us, "special report." bret, he referred to benghazi as an incident, which i'm sure is an insult to the you are viefers and the family -- survivors and the family members of the four murdered americans, but what was conspicuous, and uma and i were talking about this just a moment ago, that he says, well, we're doing to properly fund from now
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on security at missions and consulates and embassies. funding was never an issue, was it? >> well, it was, it was not an issue according to cheryl mills who testified on capitol hill in the benghazi attack at the consulate. in this particular thing, in this particular attack. and the particular security situation. she testified to that. the assistant secretary of state. i will say that the president is making an effort to go forward with the efforts and recommendations of the accountability review board and saying he talked to democrats and republicans, meeting with senator john mccain just yesterday. be it's important to point out that that is how they are trying to get ahead of this, to say that they don't want it to happen again, and they want to go to the recommendations part of this right away. they obviously have other
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questions about what led up to benghazi before that, but that's how the president is trying to address moving forward. uma: bret, this is uma. are you surprised he's trying to step ahead on benghazi right from the get go here before reporters even ask any questions? >> no. i think that's all in the plan and something that they wanted to do from the beginning. we should probably listen in to the the turkish prime minister about syria, i think, because that's a big issue as well. >> translator: and i can tell you that as leaders of our nations we have the will to continue to develop our economic relations. in our discussions that pertain to regional issues was at the top of our agenda. while we discussed syria, we talked about what has happened
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so far, and we talked about what can be done in the future, and we have used that overlap, as the president has just said. we will continue to discuss this issue in greater detail in our meeting this evening, but let me tell you that ending this bloody process in syria and meeting the legitimate demands of the people by establishing a new government are two areas where we are in full agreement with the united states. supporting the opposition and assad's leaving are important issues. we also see that we have to prevent it from becoming an area for terrorist organizations. we also believed that chemical weapons should not be used. these are all priority areas for all of us, and we discussed what needs to be done on these issues with the president, and this evening we will continue to talk
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about these in greater detail. iraq was also another area of discussion for us on regional issues. transparent elections in iraq and the participation of -- insuring the participation of all political groups in the elections are both very important in iraq. with everyone's participation, we would like to see a peaceful period in the iraq -- both we and the united states would like to see. with respect to the middle east peace process, we discussed with the president this important issue which is very important for regional peace. in the effect who was taking humanitarian aid to gaza and turkish people were killed and we are working with the government for come pechb saying

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